Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/713

This page needs to be proofread.

LUCKNOW are the other principal buildings. The church of England, the Methodist Episcopal church of the United States, and the Roman Catholic church have missions at Lucknow. The Brit- ish residency was destroyed during the siege at the time of the mutiny of 1857. Since that event many changes have also been made in the plan of the city, as whole streets have been pulled down in accordance with the system of defence adopted by the British in 1858. Luck- now is connected with the East Indian railway, between Calcutta and Delhi, by the Oude and Rohilcund railway, a branch line to Cawnpore. The seat of government of the former king- dom of Oude was removed from Fyzabad to Lucknow in 1775, and it continued to be the royal residence until the annexation of the ter- ritory to the British dominions. During the mutiny of 1857 the British garrison in Luck- now, numbering about 1,700 men, was besieged by about 10,000 of the mutineers. After 12 LUCRETIA TOT The Martinidre, Lucknow. weeks' defence, during which the British lost Sir Henry Lawrence, their commander, and suffered from the ravages of cholera, smallpox, and fevers, scarcely less than from the fire and assaults of the enemy, Gens. Havelock and Outram fought their way in with a relieving force, Sept. 25. The defence was now resumed with fresh vigor, Sir James Outram, as senior officer, taking the command. On Nov. 17 Sir Colin Campbell reached the city with reen- forcements. A few days later the residency was evacuated, the British withdrawing by night to the Dilkoosha, where on the 25th Sir Henry Havelock died of dysentery. Gen. Outram was left with a division at the Alum- bagh (the king's summer palace, about 4 m. from the residency) to watch the enemy, and the rest retired in safety to Cawnpore. In January, 1858, Outram was subjected to des- perate attacks at the Alumbagh by 30,000 rebels, whom he defeated with about one tenth that number of troops; and on Feb. 21, with six guns and not quite 400 men, he routed another force of 20,000. In the mean time the insurgents had fortified Lucknow, and oc- cupied it with a large force. Early in March they were besieged by Sir Colin Campbell, who effected a partial entrance on the 4th ; but the capture was not complete until the 21st, when the city was abandoned by the enemy, most of whom made their escape. LUCOff, a town of France, in the department of Vendee, on a navigable canal which con- nects it with the sea, about 55 m. S. S. E. of Nantes; pop. in 1866, 6,603. It is the seat of a bishop, and has a theological seminary and a communal college. There are manufactories of linen and china ware. In June, 1793, the republicans obtained here a victory over the Vendeans. LUCON. See LUZON. LUCRETIA. See BRUTUS, Lucius JUNIUS. LUCRETIUS (Tixus LUOEETIUS CAEUS), a Roman philosophical poet, concerning whose personal history little is known. According to the Eusebian chroni- cle, which is almost the sole authority, he was born in 95 B. C., was driven mad by a phil- ter, composed in his intervals of reason sev- eral works which were revised by Cicero, and died by his own hand in 52. There are no other particulars con- cerning his life from authentic sources. He is known only as the author of De JRerum Natura, which is by universal consent the greatest of didactic poems. It is in six books, in heroic verse, extends to 7,400 lines, and is addressed to C. Memmius Gemellus, praetor in 58 B. C. It is designed to develop clear- ly and to illustrate in an attractive way the atomic theory of the universe; to show that there is nothing in the history or condition of the world which requires the creative agen- cy of a supreme power, but that all objects may be formed by the union of elemental particles governed from all eternity by cer- tain laws. The first book contains a magnifi- cent apostrophe to Venus, as the allegorical representation of the reproductive power, an invective against the monster superstition, an elucidation of the formula that nothing can be produced from nothing, and a statement of the doctrine of ultimate atoms. The development of the atomic theory occupies the second book. The third book aims to prove that soul and body are one and indistinguishable, and live